Waltrip's Martin Truex Jr. was kicked out of the championship, Ryan Newman was added to the 12-man playoff roster, for the 10-race chase which begins this weekend in Chicago. But Jeff Gordon, the other man hurt by Clint Bowyer's controversial late-race spin, got no relief from the stock car racing sanctioning body.

The only man suspended was Ty Norris, Waltrip's general manager.

NASCAR made it clear that it felt the Waltrip operation had attempted to manipulate the outcome of the race.

NASCAR Monday evening hurriedly called a press conference to address the situation raised late Saturday when Bowyer spunout under questionable circumstances and teammate Brian Vickers was ordered to make a last lap pit stop for questionable reasons. The Bowyer-Vickers situations resulted in Truex and Joey Logano making the playoffs, where with just seven laps to go in the last race of the regular season Gordon and Newman were set to make the playoffs, not Truex or Logano.

The press conference was apparently not carried by any of NASCAR's TV partners. And the press conference was called only about 30 minutes before it was set.

Newman was leading the Richmond race, which would have put him in the playoffs, until Bowyer spun out with seven laps to go. The video and the in-car audio both suggested Bowyer spun out on purpose, to keep Newman from winning.

However NASCAR officials insisted Monday night they could not determine beyond a reasonable doubt that Bowyer had spun out on purpose.

Still, the preponderence of audio was that Ty Norris, general manager of the Waltrip team, appeared to be orchestrating the finish to put Truex in the playoffs.

The official NASCAR press release:

"NASCAR has issued penalties to Michael Waltrip Racing following the sanctioning body’s review of Saturday’s race at Richmond International Raceway.

"MWR was found to have violated Section 12-4 (Actions detrimental to stock car racing). As a result, MWR’s three teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (No. 15, 55, 56) have been penalized with the loss of 50 championship driver and 50 championship owner points, respectively.

"These point penalties are assessed following the season’s 26th regular season race and not after the seeding for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Therefore, the point total for the No. 56 car driven by Martin Truex Jr. is reduced to 691, putting him in 17th position and eliminating him from the second Wild Card berth for the Chase field. Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 39 car, now moves up into the Chase as the second Wild Card participant.

"Based upon our review of Saturday night’s race at Richmond, it is our determination that the MWR organization attempted to manipulate the outcome of the race,” said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition. “As the sport’s sanctioning body, it is our responsibility to ensure there is a fair and level playing field for all of our competitors and this action today reflects our commitment to that."

Tony Stewart issued a quick statement: "Obviously, we’re very pleased with NASCAR’s decision to provide Ryan Newman’s rightful place in this year’s Chase. NASCAR was put in a very difficult position Saturday night at Richmond and we commend the sanctioning body for taking the time to do the necessary due diligence to ensure that the right call was made."

Waltrip issued a statement: "What occurred on the No. 55 (Brian Vickers) radio at the end of Saturday night’s race in Richmond was a split-second decision made by team spotter Ty Norris to bring the No. 55 to pit lane and help a teammate earn a place in the Chase. We regret the decision and its impact. We apologize to NASCAR, our fellow competitors, partners and fans who were disappointed in our actions. We will learn from this and move on. As general manager, Ty Norris has been an integral part of Michael Waltrip Racing since its founding and has my and (co-owner) Rob Kauffman’s full support.”

Gordon, in a short statement, said he didn't agree with NASCAR not specifically penalizing Bowyer.

The controversy comes as NASCAR marketers and drivers are fanning out across the country to promote the championship playoffs.

NASCAR's Helton spent nearly 30 minutes Monday night discussing the incident and how NASCAR came to its conclusions.

"We've spent the last day and a half collecting all the information we could, and today we reviewed that," Helton said. Waltrip's people were asked to attend Monday's review and accepted.

"This naturally is a very significant reaction from NASCAR. As multiple car owners have become a very integral part of our sport, so has become the responsibility to maintain a fair and level playing field. We've been very fortunate that we have not had to step up as we have today.

"It is difficult; it is not an easy decision to make. We have talked at great length with people from Michael Waltrip Racing to come to the right spot and make the correct decision."

The initial sense was that Bowyer himself was not signficantly penalized.

Helton said the sanctioning body was targeting the Waltrip organization, rather than any specific driver or team.

"We penalize as a message for it not to happen again, not to take it out on somebody. It's a message from the league to say 'You can't do this.' That's what we're doing."

Immediately after Saturday's race NASCAR's John Darby didn't seem worried about any intentional moves by Bowyer.

When did NASCAR's thinking change?

"The unfolding of the race had nothing in it that we needed to react to.

"After the conclusion of the race, it was some time before components began to come together. It was far into the night, early in the morning, before we began to sense components of what might have happened surfaced.

"We spent the biggest part of today reviewing all that."

Jeff Gordon?

"We react to what occured....not to the ripple effect," Helton said.

If NASCAR had been monitoring live-time the radio communication between crews and teams, perhaps a red flag might have been raised.

Helton said that technology doesn't really exist at the moment.

Of course NASCAR could simple ban such radio communications..

Helton said "There is not conclusive evidence that (Bowyer) spun intentionally."

He said the Bowyer-Brian Pattie conversation just before the spin "was the most clear piece of evidence...."

And an appeal? Helton said there is an appeals process, but it is up to Michael Waltrip to make that call.

Helton pointed out there were no suspensions involved here except for Ty Norris.

"Ty confirmed the conversation (with Vickers)," Helton said.

Does this all create a credibility issue?

"It is a sport, it is supposed to be fun...but we realize there will be days like this when things didn't go right," Helton said. "It was a tough conversation with Michael Waltrip Racing..and it was a tough conversation internally (at NASCAR). We all wanted to make sure we did the right things.

"But we'll get through this.

"As far as the credibility of the sport, NASCAR has always taken very seriously its responsibilty to maintain, for the most part, its credibility. We get that that is subjective.

"But remember this is a sport. Sometimes it gets out of bounds, and we have to bring it back."

The $300,000 fine? "We debated for a while..and the uniqueness of this penalty," Helton said.

"This is the most major fine in our history, in dollar amount. And it is the first time NASCAR has responded to a team, to every car in a team.

"We looked at it as a whole package.

"Today is a unique step for us. But we do have a track record of dealing with a trend until we stop that trend."

The Jeff Gordon situation, however, lingers.

"If you try to look at the ripple effect of an incident, you can't always come with a reaction..

"So we try to react to an incident. Our focus is the incident, not the ripple effect of the incident, or the ramifications of our reaction."

NASCAR has not fixed all the problem. Gordon was in the Chase at the time MWR pulled this stunt. Gordon should also be in the Chase. If this is not correct I have purchased my last ticket to a NASCAR event.

I like Micheal waltrip.I like all three of his drivers but stevie wonder could see what was happening sat night. They not only put newman out of the chase but also cost his team and sponsors the exposure and money they should have received.

When mwr came into nascar they were caught cheating useing sterno.They were fined but allowed to race the daytona 500.It was toyotas swan song into nascar and they togeather cheated and were caught red handed. Fast forward a few yrs and poor Carl Long was fined a huge amount by nascar for having a engine .005 to big not from being built that way but worn out!.

Brian France is a joke .Drivers being secretly fined for answering a question honestly.Tony Stewart went after Logano then dropped some f bombs on national tv and his actions go unpunished yet Hamlin answers a question by a reporter and he's fined big bucks.

If there was ever a time to launch a nascar rival its now.Brian has lost control of the sport with his on again off again leadership. Reporters and fans had to call mwr's actions into the spotlight.Nascar was going to turn a blind eye towards toyota and mwr yet again.

mwr wasn't the first team to determine the out come of a race.Nascar does it on a regular basis with some phantom cautions and the jr rule.It would be compelling to see how many cautions have been thrown just a lap or two after jr was lapped so he would be the lucky dog.

nascar itself can do anything it wants with out regard.Its time now for a rival and fair series .

I contend we've become a nation of candyasses & hence thus has na$car. Every frappin team looks to gain advantages legal or not (think Chad Knauss). na$car created this mess with the ridiculous chase. I don't blame MWR one bit. Anyone other than me think JJ's spate of recent bad luck was contrived? How I long for the days when real men (think Allison brothers) raced. Dale Sr would've just wrecked Newman & not apologized. Bowyer is about as close to old school as you're gonna get. But in a nation of candyasses, we can't have that now can we?

MWR has done screwed the pooch. If I was a sponsor, I would be running as fast as I could from ol' Mikey. An interesting irony, had Martin been in the 55 and not the 14 you can pretty well bet this would not have gone down.

Proud of Ricky Craven, he went to the heart of the matter with Bowyer, and would not give him an out! I believe that only he, in this PC world of NASCAR, would show that the actions of the team, have consequences and it will not go away, no matter how Boyer tries to spin it! They got caught and it was stupid. Finally NASCAR has made an attempt to gain back a small amount of credibility for its actions. The recent calls being made in the tower are alarming! The " gaming" has gotten a bit much and the explanations coming out of Daytona are a joke. It should be quite a press conference Friday. Keep it WFO,

Now that we have all jumped on the mwr scapegoat wagon, let me say this. Hendrick, Roush or any of the teams in that situation would have done the same thing but would probably have been a little smarter about it. They should have informed their drivers before sat's race of what they were going to try and do.Did Boyer spin on purpose? Of course he did, because he was a team player and he was trying to help his team.He understood what was happening but Vickers had no idea what was going on.

What mwr did is no worse then Jimmie pulling over to let jr lead a lap or two then jr letting him back by for the leader bonus points.That's been going on forever by each multi-car team. It just looked worse because it was the last race of the chase contenders.

How many times has the hendrick bunch been caught cheating or trying to; yet lowe's stands beside them all the way to the championship banquet.Napa and 5 hr energy should do the same.Racing is a game of cheaters!!!!!!!!!The one who does it the best without getting caught is the winner.If you think Jr johnson's drivers won all those races on the up and up you are probably watching the wrong sport.

The sport didn't pass the woods and pettys by; cheating did.That's why both are a mid-field teams now.Rcr won championships because they found something no one else had.Morgan mcclure won the restricted races for yrs because they found something no one else had thought of.dei had restricted racing figured out and that let waltrip and junebug win for yrs until they were caught.

Racing is a sport of innovation. The team that can find that extra little something, legal or not, are going to do it.

Nascar has too many rules, so teams have no choice but to try and cheat.They have a gear rule/shock rule/spoiler rule/camber rule/caster rule/ ride height rule/ body rules that are stupidity, with the lasers and the claw/cross wt rules/left side wt rules/ and I could go on forever

There hasn't been a stock looking car since the 83 thunderbird.From that point on, nascar has felt the need to give teams that had less aerodynamic cars a break by spoiler /back glass add-ons or what ever; but there is no sense in it.The 83 t bird had a factory grill, headlight buckets, and bumper, as did the monte carlo grand prix and others.Put the fusion factory looking front end on as well as the ss and camry and race them.If one is faster then the other let the teams figure it out like the use too.
It shouldn't be nascar's job to offer equality and parity.

Until Brian France can grow, nascar will continue to fall.Nascar has created this environment where you have to cheat to win, and it won't get any better until they do.